


Coffee Kinda Love

by midnights_stars



Category: Persona 5
Genre: (I FORGOT THE OTHER DAMN PAIRING TAG, (might be considered purple prose??), (over coffee and studying of all things), Falling In Love, M/M, anyways i love ryuji sakamoto, it's been what, no beta we die like men, three years?, wow i can't believe i'm actually posting something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 18:36:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10950366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnights_stars/pseuds/midnights_stars
Summary: “I just… don’t see myself as a pirate, of all things,” he admits while the two of them are taking a break from studying. His voice sounds loud despite his attempt to keep it quiet, but also muffled, as if someone is holding an instrument mute over his mouth.---In which Ryuji and Akira study together on a rainy day, and Ryuji has a few epiphanies.





	Coffee Kinda Love

**Author's Note:**

> Atlus you cowards let Akira have a boyfriend skjdfhskdjf

Textbooks and lectures might not interest him, but Ryuji is fascinated by all kinds of interesting historical figures. He could spend days watching documentaries on Napoleon's conquests, or the double life of Mata Hari, or even the fall of Julius Caesar. So when his persona manifests as a skeletal swashbuckler atop a ghostly pirate ship, he knows exactly who his new partner is. William Kidd, Scottish sailor accused of piracy so long ago, has been reborn as his persona, his  _ other self _ . He takes it in stride, reasons with himself that stealing the treasure is more important than sudden self-discovery. 

  
After all is said and done and Kamoshida has been locked behind bars, he asks Akira if he thinks his persona is a fitting image for him. The diner is empty save for themselves, an elderly couple, and a businessman, all immersed in their own thoughts over the sound of the rain’s quiet tapping on the windows. 

 

“I just… don’t see myself as a pirate, of all things,” he admits while the two of them are taking a break from studying. His voice sounds loud despite his attempt to keep it quiet, but also muffled, as if someone is holding an instrument mute over his mouth.

  
  
Akira looks up from his coffee, steely grey eyes betraying nothing of the endless wisdom behind them. “Why not?” He speaks softly. Ryuji shivers. Akira’s voice caresses him, wrapping around him and dragging him down into a sea of silk. 

 

He can’t find it in himself to kick back up to the surface. 

 

He opens his mouth to reply, only to close it again. 

 

_ Why not? _

 

He doesn’t know. He doesn’t even know  _ why _ in the first place. Akira’s eyes bore holes into his soul, into his  _ heart.  _ The air around them seems to still and grow heavy with the weight of unsaid words. 

 

Ryuji tears his eyes away from Akira’s first. He looks down at his own cup of coffee, curling one hand around it just to feel its warmth. The sharp scent wafting from the creamy concoction only serves to agitate him more. It smells nothing like the soothing coffee Akira makes, full of love and patience. He swallows around the inexplicable lump in his throat, suddenly acutely aware of the amount of time that has passed without conversation between the two of them.

 

From across the table, Akira lets out a quiet, breathy chuckle. It’s pathetic, how fast Ryuji’s head shoots up at the sound.

 

For a second, Ryuji forgets how to breathe.

 

Akira’s glasses are a little fogged up from the steam of his own coffee. His mouth is turned up at the corners in a tiny smile, full of fondness. His eyes, once the moisture obscuring them has cleared away a little, are shining with mirth. A dust of pink rests high on soft cheeks. Just like this, even with the weary slump of his shoulders and visible dark circles under his eyes, Ryuji thinks Akira is beautiful.

 

“You know, some say William Kidd was never a pirate at all, that he was wronged by his own crew,” Akira says, still smiling. Then, as if the conversation had never even happened in the first place, he trades his cup of coffee for his pen and goes back to scribbling math notes.

 

It takes a second for the implications of Akira’s statement to click in Ryuji’s mind. Leave it to Akira to somehow miraculously draw a parallel between a larger than life pirate legend and a deadbeat kid like Ryuji.

 

Maybe it was a cliche love at first sight type of thing. Maybe it happened right after he saw Akira wreathed in blue flames, Arsene towering behind him, staring down Kamoshida. Ryuji can’t pinpoint exactly when he started developing feelings for Akira, but in this moment, it all comes to head.

 

Over a rainy day in a small diner, sipping mediocre coffee while studying, Ryuji falls for the boy who holds the weight of the world in his hands.

**Author's Note:**

> this probably reads like shit lmao it's been so long since i've last posted anything and my only other work is hETALIA of all things brb i'm just gonna curl up in the corner and d i e
> 
> (spot the nier automata reference!!)
> 
> comments and kudos are greatly appreciated and will be consumed for sustenance because i am actually yusuke irl


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